A situation where at the existing price the quantity of a good or service supplied is greater than that demanded. In markets where a market-maker stabilizes the price by meeting all other people's offers to supply and their demands, excess supply can be measured directly. In all other markets excess supply cannot be measured directly, but has to be inferred from various market signals. These include the absence of queues or abnormally early delivery dates; exceptional selling efforts by producers; abnormally high or rising levels of stocks; and in labour markets, unusually high figures for unemployment. Excess supply makes price cuts likely, and wage cuts possible though unlikely.

• provision, bad debt
• proxy vote
• PSBR
• public choice
• public company
• public corporation
• public expenditure
• Public Expenditure Survey Committee
• public finance
• public goods
• public interest
• public limited company
• public ownership
• public procurement
• public sector
• Public Sector Borrowing Requirement
• public sector debt
• Public Sector Debt Repayment
• public spending
• public utility
• public works
• pump priming
• punishment strategy
• purchase tax
• purchasing power